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25040Venturebeat.comTwitter: Leonardo DiCaprio’s Best Actor win sets record for most-tweeted minute at Oscarshttp://venturebeat.com/2016/02/29/twitter-leonardo-dicaprios-best-actor-win-sets-record-for-most-tweeted-minute-at-oscars/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/29/twitter-leonardo-dicaprios-best-actor-win-sets-record-for-most-tweeted-minute-at-oscars/#respondMon, 29 Feb 2016 08:23:12 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1885697Leonardo DiCaprio made history multiple times during the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday. Not only did the actor finally win Best Actor for his performance in The Revenant, but Twitter said that he is responsible for the most-tweeted minute ever to take place during an Oscars telecast. It unseats the previous record holder belonging to the […]
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Much of the impetus behind that record was likely people who were ecstatic about the actor finally winning an Oscar after six previous Academy Award nominations for films like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Wolf of Wall Street, Blood Diamond, and The Aviator. Of course, DiCaprio’s acceptance speech about global warming also played a big part: “Climate change is real, it is happening right now,” he said. “It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating…Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted.”

Oh, and let’s not forget all the new memes that were created in celebration of DiCaprio’s achievements.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/29/twitter-leonardo-dicaprios-best-actor-win-sets-record-for-most-tweeted-minute-at-oscars/feed/01885697Twitter: Leonardo DiCaprio’s Best Actor win sets record for most-tweeted minute at Oscars#OscarsSoWhite? Big data’s prediction for Best Picture confirms sad reality of the Academy Awardshttp://venturebeat.com/2016/02/26/he-film-big-data-predicts-will-win-best-picture-and-the-sad-reality-it-confirms-about-the-oscars/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/26/he-film-big-data-predicts-will-win-best-picture-and-the-sad-reality-it-confirms-about-the-oscars/#respondFri, 26 Feb 2016 11:39:07 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1884126For the past three years, digital advertising firm Exponential has correctly predicted the winner of the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards using a model built from its treasure chest of big data on consumers. That would be interesting in most years to film nerds like me. But it’s particularly interesting this year, as the […]
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For the past three years, digital advertising firm Exponential has correctly predicted the winner of the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards using a model built from its treasure chest of big data on consumers.

That would be interesting in most years to film nerds like me. But it’s particularly interesting this year, as the ceremony is engulfed in the #OscarSoWhite controversy that has drawn attention to the lack of diversity in nominees.

Why? While the prediction model is incredibly complex, drawing on thousands of statistically significant behaviors (more on those in a moment), the prediction for Best Picture also comes down to using all that data to make one, sad, stark determination: Which nominee is most preferred by older white males?

Of course, the reason that formula works is because it essentially describes the makeup of the group that nominates and selects the winners of the Oscars each year.

“The resulting profile of the Oscar voter is deep enough to support an hour-long presentation,” Exponential says in its report this year. “We know he (and it is a ‘he’) is a frequent traveler, invests heavily in home theater systems, follows baseball and tennis, is concerned about privacy and Social Security, buys expensive watches, and drives a European luxury car.”

In other words, Straight Outta Compton never stood a chance of getting a nomination.

You can see Exponential’s predictions for the three years it has done this modeling here, here and here. And in case you’re curious, I’m purposely holding off on revealing their prediction for this year until further down, just in case you don’t want to see a spoiler. (If a prediction can be considered a “spoiler.”)

Of course, if Exponential is wrong, then the company hypothesizes that voter behavior was possibly affected by the controversy. On the other hand, the slate of eight nominated films are each whiter-than-rice in their own way. So it could be hard to know for sure where the model went wrong.

In any case, here’s a quick breakdown of the profile of each film and who it appeals to in terms of consumer behaviors, according to Exponential:

Brooklyn: This mediocre snoozefest is set in the 1950s and features lots of famous people speaking in phony Irish accents. According to Exponential, Brooklyn has the oldest audience among the nominees, with an average age of 67, and also the “most prominently Caucasian” audience. The problem is that this audience doesn’t like film that much and would prefer to watch PBS or the BBC. In fact, they are 80 times more likely to watch Downton Abbey than the average person.

Bridge of Spies: Another mediocre snoozefest, this time set in the 1960s, it stars Tom Hanks as “Tom Hanks,” uttering tons of obvious lines about freedom and liberty. And it was directed by Steven Spielberg, which used to matter. The problem, according to Exponential, is that fans of this movie are interested in the armed forces, support lower taxes, want a freeze on immigration, are “13 times more likely to have considered emergency preparedness,” and are more likely to cook red meat at home than eat at a restaurant. In other words, they are not Hollywood liberals.

The Martian: This eminently predictable film stars Matt Damon as “Matt Damon” and ends exactly they way you knew it would the moment you saw the first trailer. People who like this movie are quite likely to be looking for an apartment to rent or installing solar panels on their home, have a lot of graduate degrees, and work in higher education or IT. In other words, they are too smart to be Oscar voters.

Mad Max: A relentless two hours of car chases through the desert by post-apocalyptic refugees who can’t seem to find food and water and gasoline but have amassed a bottomless supply of leather outerwear. Basically, these fans include a lot of fussy architects and contractors who drive Subarus and Mazdas but would rather be at a music festival (dressed, no doubt, in copious amounts of leather!). In other words, they are people willing to ignore the film’s lack of anything resembling a plot because it’s neat to look at. Side note: Also most likely to support Donald Trump!

The Revenant: This 2.5-hour orgy of male torture porn is the cinematic equivalent of lying in bed while someone places a pillow over your face and slowly smothers you to death. People who like this are “too conservative,” according to Exponential. They are religious, likely to listen to Glenn Beck, are number two on the Trump-support list, and are likely to drink bourbon and go hunting, own a truck or SUV, have a power saw, and work in law enforcement.

Room: The main character is a woman, and this is the favorite among women. Two strikes and you’re out, Oscar-wise. Also, as Exponential notes of this film’s fans: “This is also the wealthiest and most charitable audience, a pattern we do not find among Oscar voters.”

Spotlight vs. The Big Short: This is where it gets tough. And as you’ve probably figured out by now, (unless you have the intelligence of someone who liked The Revenant), the previous six are not the predicted winners.

One of these movies is about crusading white reporters who remind people that newspapers used to be a thing and that they mattered. The other is about a bunch of white guys who get wealthy while reminding people that big banks are crooked and the financial system is rigged against the little guy.

So it comes down to two movies with very similar profiles consumer-wise. According to Exponential, the fans of these movies share “95 percent of the 10,116 behavioral indicators we have identified.” I bet you didn’t even know that humans have more than 10,000 behaviors!

So which one does Exponential favor?

The Big Short.

Why? Men love it, and it’s the movie most preferred by Caucasians, after Brooklyn (which has too many other factors that rule it out). The Big Short is also super popular in Los Angeles and New York City, which, as we all know, are the only two places that really matter in the U.S. The rest of the country is pretty much just scrub brush and trailer parks at this point.

Also, Big Short fans match most of the Academy behavior profiles mentioned above, with a few minor tweaks: They like basketball more than baseball, and they prefer luxury cars from Asia to those from Europe.

So, there you have it. If Big Short wins this weekend, (and frankly, even if Spotlight wins), it’ll be directly attributable to the overall racial makeup of Hollywood and the Academy. Yes, we pretty much knew that already. But it’s never much fun to have your worst suspicions confirmed.

Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris may have many talents. But when it comes to generating social media buzz, he apparently can’t hold a selfie stick to last year’s host, Ellen DeGeneres.

In report released today, social analytics firm Sysomos reported that the number of tweets at this year’s Oscars was 8.58 million — a drop of 39 percent from last year. While the drop is quite large, it’s not entirely surprising since Twitter declined to release the numbers from the Academy Awards as it had the two previous years.

Last year, Twitter reported that there were 14.7 million tweets related to the Oscar broadcast. A drop of 39 percent based on Twitter’s raw numbers would mean about 8.967 million tweets, putting it within range of Sysomos’ numbers.

It’s not immediately clear why there was so much less tweeting during the Oscars this year. But one reason may have been Harris.

According to Sysomos, Harris had 352,881 mentions on Twitter this year, compared to 3,650,452 for DeGeneres last year. Of course, the 2014 Oscars featured DeGeneres’ epic selfie tweet that became the most retweeted ever.

While the Oscars and tweeting are fun, it’s also serious business for Twitter. The company is trying to show that it can grow its user base and engagement, and big live events like the Oscars are a cornerstone of its success.

In the Q1 2014 earnings call in April, chief executive Dick Costolo and chief financial officer Mike Gupta pointed to the Oscars as key for Twitter to not only draw in new users, but to attract advertisers and show them the value of the platform.

“In the two days after the Oscars, there were over 3.3 billion views of tweets just about the show,” Costolo said in April 2014, comparing that to the reach of YouTube. “That kind of reach and impact is why we now have TV measurement and ratings partnerships in 11 countries, and it’s what’s enabled us to build a partnership with Billboard for the first real-time chart to highlight the music of the moment.”

There are no better moments for Twitter than big, global live events like the Academy Awards. People huddle around TV screens, having found that they can be part of a worldwide snarkfest that transcends culture and languages as they tweet on their smartphones and laptops.

So, how big were the Oscars for Twitter last night? We don’t know, because so far, Twitter isn’t saying.

In a blog post recapping the highlights from the show, the company didn’t include data about the volume of tweets.

That may not mean anything, of course. But it is a notable departure from the last two years when Twitter was quick to share the info about how much people were tweeting about the Oscars:

Feb. 25, 2013: “All in all, there were 8.9 million Tweets about the 85th Academy Awards: 2.1 million during the red carpet, and 6.8 million during the awards show.”

March 3, 2014: “During the live show (8:30 p.m.-12:00 midnight ET) there were more than 14.7 million Tweets around the world containing terms related to the telecast. Including the red carpet and conversation immediately following the show (5:30 p.m.-12:10 a.m. ET), there were 17.1 million Oscar-related Tweets.”

Of course, it’s possible Twitter will update the post later. But the post today went live about the same time as the posts the two previous years that did include numbers.

The company remains under pressure to find ways to grow users, engagement and revenue. Any sign that such signature events like the Oscars aren’t generating big numbers for Twitter could be troublesome.

However, Twitter did offer an embeddable heat map showing how the country live tweeted the ceremony. And a glance at the heat map shows that if there was a slump in tweets, we may have Montana to blame. While the state is large but sparsely populated, it still seems its citizens failed to rouse from their bison-burger induced stupor except for a brief moment when the winners for hair and makeup were announced.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/23/after-two-gangbuster-years-twitters-declines-to-release-numbers-on-2015-oscars/feed/01666280After two gangbuster years, Twitter declines to release numbers on 2015 OscarsTwitter’s Oscars stats: 3.3B tweets viewed worldwide, reaching 37M peoplehttp://venturebeat.com/2014/03/05/twitters-oscars-stats-3-3b-tweets-viewed-worldwide-reaching-37m-people/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/05/twitters-oscars-stats-3-3b-tweets-viewed-worldwide-reaching-37m-people/#respondWed, 05 Mar 2014 16:00:05 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1050618No matter what you think of Ellen’s selfie, it’s hard to deny the impact the Oscars had on Twitter this year. Twitter revealed this morning that tweets about the Oscars were viewed more than 3.3 billion times between 5 p.m. Eastern on Sunday and 5 a.m. Monday morning. But perhaps even more impressively, Twitter notes […]
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No matter what you think of Ellen’s selfie, it’s hard to deny the impact the Oscars had on Twitter this year.

Twitter revealed this morning that tweets about the Oscars were viewed more than 3.3 billion times between 5 p.m. Eastern on Sunday and 5 a.m. Monday morning. But perhaps even more impressively, Twitter notes that those tweets reached 37 million people overall — not too far from the 43 million people who watched the show on ABC.

The usefulness of Twitter during live events isn’t anything new — rather than sitting back and consuming content, Twitter lets you become an active participant. But while Twitter’s viewership is steadily increasing, the number of people sending tweets is still significantly lower. When it comes to the Oscars, Twitter says only 5 million people actually sent tweets related to the event.

Twitter created an infographic to demonstrate the impact of Ellen’s Oscars selfie, which became the most retweeted post within just a few hours (and now sits at an astounding 3.2 million retweets). Ellen’s tweet was viewed more than 32.8 million times (before 5 a.m. Eastern on Monday), which includes 26 million views across Twitter’s apps and sites, as well as 6.8 million views via website embeds.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/05/twitters-oscars-stats-3-3b-tweets-viewed-worldwide-reaching-37m-people/feed/01050618Twitter’s Oscars stats: 3.3B tweets viewed worldwide, reaching 37M peopleEllen’s Oscars selfie now the most retweeted post ever — a huge win for Samsunghttp://venturebeat.com/2014/03/02/ellens-oscar-selfie-now-the-most-retweeted-post-ever-a-huge-win-for-samsung/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/02/ellens-oscar-selfie-now-the-most-retweeted-post-ever-a-huge-win-for-samsung/#respondMon, 03 Mar 2014 04:21:33 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1030538Sorry, President Obama — the Internet likes Ellen a lot more. During the Samsung-sponsored Academy Awards tonight, host Ellen Degeneres wrangled celebrities from the audience to tweet an awkward selfie with her Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (which made several appearances during the show). At the time of this post, that tweet has now been retweeted […]
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Sorry, President Obama — the Internet likes Ellen a lot more.

During the Samsung-sponsored Academy Awards tonight, host Ellen Degeneres wrangled celebrities from the audience to tweet an awkward selfie with her Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (which made several appearances during the show).

Clearly, all it takes to beat out Obama on Twitter is the combined celebrity powers of Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, and more. (Let’s call it Captain Planet Hollywood.)

The biggest winner here is Samsung, which bought gobs of ad time during the Oscars. Samsung also worked in several “native advertising” moments, which involved Ellen whipping out her white Galaxy Note 3 to tweet photos of the audience. Her first attempt was a blurry mess, but this group photo alone is clearly worth whatever ungodly price Samsung paid to sponsor the Oscars.

Unfortunately for Samsung, Ellen also swiftly switched to her iPhone for backstage pics. Next time, Samsung needs to make sure to book the talent for off-screen tweeting time as well.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/02/ellens-oscar-selfie-now-the-most-retweeted-post-ever-a-huge-win-for-samsung/feed/01030538Ellen’s Oscars selfie now the most retweeted post ever — a huge win for SamsungNetflix original doc ‘The Square’ grabs Oscar nominationhttp://venturebeat.com/2014/01/16/netflix-original-doc-the-square-grabs-oscar-nomination/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/16/netflix-original-doc-the-square-grabs-oscar-nomination/#respondThu, 16 Jan 2014 16:35:28 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=883924While Netflix is only beginning to provide original specials and documentaries to its streaming video subscribers, the company already has its first big win. Film festival favorite The Square, which Netflix secured the exclusive rights to back in November as part of an overall strategy to start driving original content beyond television series, grabbed an […]
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While Netflix is only beginning to provide original specials and documentaries to its streaming video subscribers, the company already has its first big win.

Film festival favorite The Square, which Netflix secured the exclusive rights to back in November as part of an overall strategy to start driving original content beyond television series, grabbed an Oscar nomination in the feature documentary category today. The film itself is a documentary that follows the Egyptian revolution of 2011 by capturing the perspective of the country’s young activists. The film previously won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The nomination follows Netflix’s Emmy awards for its original political drama House of Cards last year. The nomination also helps Netflix become more competitive with rival service HBO.

The Square will open in select theaters Friday and will be available to watch on Netflix the same day.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/16/netflix-original-doc-the-square-grabs-oscar-nomination/feed/0883924Netflix original doc ‘The Square’ grabs Oscar nomination‘The Flixies’ is how Netflix does The Oscarshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/02/26/the-flixies-is-how-netflix-does-the-oscars/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/26/the-flixies-is-how-netflix-does-the-oscars/#respondTue, 26 Feb 2013 14:09:46 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=628320Streaming video service Netflix has launched a brand new site that allows you to vote on a new set of "best of" movies and TV shows, which bears a striking resemblance to the Oscars.
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Streaming video service Netflix has launched a brand new site that allows you to vote on a new set of “best of” movies and TV shows, which bears a striking resemblance to the Academy Awards/Oscars.

Continuing its tradition of uncommon categories, this new set of Netflix awards — called The Flixies — allows you to pick the best guilty pleasure, best commute shortener, best marathon TV show, best hangover cure, best bromance, best PMS Drama, and (of course) best tantrum tamer. But unlike the Oscars, categories aren’t restricted to just movies, as there are plenty of TV shows included in the mix.

This is obviously a lighthearted way of getting people to think about movies and TV shows as an emotional response to a situation, rather than which show was the best produced — something that, lets face it, most of us don’t really care about as long as we’re entertained.

Anyone can participate in voting, not just the 33 million Netflix Streaming subscribers. The results of said vote will be revealed March 11 by the company, and will include the top three video selections in each category.

Additionally, Netflix is asking people to suggest new categories, either for the service itself or perhaps even the next iteration of “The Flixies.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/26/the-flixies-is-how-netflix-does-the-oscars/feed/0628320‘The Flixies’ is how Netflix does The OscarsApple debuts film-focused iPad ad during the Oscarshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/02/24/apple-ipad-oscar-ad/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/24/apple-ipad-oscar-ad/#respondMon, 25 Feb 2013 03:52:55 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=627622Apple used the Oscars tonight to show off a sleek new iPad advertisement, this one appropriately focused on filmmaking and the movies.
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Apple has a strong user base among the creative community, and the company wants to stay relevant by marketing its flagship products during major events. The tech titan has lost some of its luster as of late because investors have questioned its long-term prospects.

The ad emphasizes many of the apps (like iMovie or iTunes) that run on the iPad that could help a film junkie watch more movies or help a video creator do his or her job. The iPad is a great consumption device for videos, and if you really feel like it, you can shoot and edit movies on it as well.

Mobile titan Samsung also debuted a new ad right before the show that is also movie-themed and features director Tim Burton.

Check out the new Apple ad in the video above.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/24/apple-ipad-oscar-ad/feed/0627622Apple debuts film-focused iPad ad during the OscarsIf Twitter and Facebook users picked Oscar winners … (infographic)http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/23/if-twitter-and-facebook-users-picked-oscar-winners-infographic/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/23/if-twitter-and-facebook-users-picked-oscar-winners-infographic/#commentsSat, 23 Feb 2013 20:16:38 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=627403The Oscars are here, and guaranteed, some arty French film with subtitles that no man has voluntarily watched will win one or three. But what if Twitterati and Facebookers chose the winners?
]]>The Oscars are here, and guaranteed, some arty subtitled French film that no football-watching man has voluntarily watched will win one or three. But what if the Twitterati and Facebookers chose the winners?

According to digital ad firm RadiumOne, Twitter and Facebook users would select Hugh Jackman as best actor for Les Mis — shockingly, not Wolverine — and Jennifer Lawrence as Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook.

Twitter users would pick teen vamp Twilight thriller Breaking Dawn Part 2 as Best Picture, with almost 1.3 million followers, but their second place would go to Paranormal Activity 4, with less than 10 percent as many followers at 117,192. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey would slot into number three position, with 86,389 followers.

Facebook users would also pick the Twilight movie as Best Picture.

The film received a massive 38 million likes, almost five times as many as first loser — and a much better movie, if I do say so myself — The Hunger Games. And Facebook would select TED, a movie about a teddy bear that comes to life, in third place.

(Perhaps there’s a good reason why social media doesn’t pick the Oscars.)

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/23/if-twitter-and-facebook-users-picked-oscar-winners-infographic/feed/1627403If Twitter and Facebook users picked Oscar winners … (infographic)Google uses search data to predict this year’s Oscar winnershttp://venturebeat.com/2013/02/20/google-uses-search-data-to-predict-this-years-oscar-winners/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/20/google-uses-search-data-to-predict-this-years-oscar-winners/#respondWed, 20 Feb 2013 22:33:07 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=625497With the Oscar's around the corner, Google has made its own predictions of the winners on a new destination website.
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With the Oscar’s around the corner — the 85th Academy Awards will air on Sunday Feb. 24 — Google has made its own predictions of the winners on a new destination website.

According to TheNextWeb, Google analysed search volume based on how many queries were run two weeks prior to the film being released, and up to three months after. It did not include sentiment — so even if you searched “Les Miserables sucks,” it wouldn’t affect the rankings.

On the new site, Google shows off all its consumer products, including its Knowledge Graph, Google Maps, YouTube, and even Google+ Hangouts.

Scroll the drop-down list to view the projected winners in the Best Director, Best Actor / Actress, Best Supporting Actor / Actress, and Best Picture categories.

Just for fun, Google also revealed the most-searched red carpet looks from 2012: no surprise, Angelina Jolie’s #planked #leg #pose made the top list (and earned its own meme).

Google hangout fans are encouraged to stream a fake acceptance speech, and there is even an interactive map to help you find out where Oscar-nominated films will be playing near you.

This isn’t the first time that the search behemoth has released a data-filled custom website to coincide with a major event: Google unveiled its “flu trends” site in the height of the sniffly season, and in the run-up to the Presidential election, it released a political channel with news and video highlights.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/20/google-uses-search-data-to-predict-this-years-oscar-winners/feed/0625497Google uses search data to predict this year’s Oscar winnersOn Twitter, the Oscar winners don’t stack up to the Grammys or Superbowlhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/02/27/the-oscar-winners-twitter-social-ratings/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/27/the-oscar-winners-twitter-social-ratings/#respondMon, 27 Feb 2012 12:29:34 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=395702The post-game analysis from the social media set is rolling in, and it seems like the Oscars, while big, didn’t manage to generate nearly as much conversation as The Grammys or Superbowl. We’re not just using Twitter as a easy excuse to pontificate about current events. As Reuters points out, big growth in social media […]
]]>The post-game analysis from the social media set is rolling in, and it seems like the Oscars, while big, didn’t manage to generate nearly as much conversation as The Grammys or Superbowl.

We’re not just using Twitter as a easy excuse to pontificate about current events. As Reuters points out, big growth in social media engagement is one of the key metrics the show’s producers will trot out when they’re selling advertisements for next year’s broadcast.

So if talk on Twitter translates to cold hard dollars, how does the Academy stack up? Social TV outfit Bluefin Labs counted 3.4 million #oscar related tweets, up three fold from the 966,000 they counted in 2011. Meryll Streep’s big win and J. Lo’s plunging neckline were the hot topics to chat about.

But while all that sounds good, it pales a little when you compare it to the Grammys, which managed to pull in 13 million tweets and an astounding 2,300 percent growth year over year. The Superbowl clocked in at around 12 million tweets, with more than 500 percent growth.

Breaking down these numbers is the bread and butter for firms like Bluefin, Trendrr, Getglue and Social Guide. How well this fledgling field works is still up for debate. But Twitter analysis did a pretty great job predicting the winners, nailing best picture, actress, and coming within a margin of error for best actor.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/27/the-oscar-winners-twitter-social-ratings/feed/0395702On Twitter, the Oscar winners don’t stack up to the Grammys or SuperbowlThe Social Network’s Oscars haul: Best adapted screenplay, score, editinghttp://venturebeat.com/2011/02/27/social-network-2011-oscars/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/27/social-network-2011-oscars/#commentsMon, 28 Feb 2011 00:30:09 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=245680David Fincher’s Facebook movie “The Social Network” headed into the 83rd Oscars ceremony tonight with eight nominations, including the Best Picture and Best Actor awards. It walked out with only three: Best Adapted Screenplay (for Aaron Sorkin), Best Original Score (for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and Best Editing (Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter). The […]
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David Fincher’s Facebook movie “The Social Network” headed into the 83rd Oscars ceremony tonight with eight nominations, including the Best Picture and Best Actor awards. It walked out with only three: Best Adapted Screenplay (for Aaron Sorkin), Best Original Score (for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and Best Editing (Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter).

Both the film and book take a significant amount of accurate information from court documents, but they also fill in gaps in Facebook’s story in creative (and often inaccurate) ways. That led to decisions like the removal of significant people from Facebook’s history, including Mark Zuckerberg’s longtime girlfriend.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/27/social-network-2011-oscars/feed/2245680The Social Network’s Oscars haul: Best adapted screenplay, score, editingYou know what’s cool? 8 Oscar nominations for The Social Networkhttp://venturebeat.com/2011/01/25/social-network-oscar-nominations/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/25/social-network-oscar-nominations/#commentsTue, 25 Jan 2011 19:38:19 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=239569“The Social Network” snagged eight Oscar nominations this morning, including the coveted Best Picture Award and the Best Actor award for Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That the film was well-received by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences comes as no surprise — The Social Network was a […]
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“The Social Network” snagged eight Oscar nominations this morning, including the coveted Best Picture Award and the Best Actor award for Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

That the film was well-received by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences comes as no surprise — The Social Network was a critical darling, and it also walked away with four Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture. (Check out my podcast review of the film with VentureBeat’s Anthony Ha.) It was beat out in nominations by “The King’s Speech” and “True Grit”, and it was also noticeably absent from a few key categories. For one, Andrew Garfield received no Academy love for his portrayal of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

In addition to Best Picture and Best Actor, director David Fincher was nominated for Best Director; screenwriter Aaron Sorkin landed a nod for Best Adapted Screenplay (the film was based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires”); Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and his musical collaborator Atticus Ross were nominated for Best Original Score; and Jeff Cronenweth was nominated for his gorgeous cinematography. The film also landed nominations for Film Editing and Sound Design.

When it comes to the Best Picture category, The Social Network has some major contenders to fend off, including “Black Swan”, “The King’s Speech”, and “True Grit.” Eisenberg meanwhile will be facing off against renowned actors like Javier Bardem, Colin Firth, and Jeff Bridges. Personally, I think the film has a good shot at landing the major awards — unless the Academy decides to fall back on safer choices (as it often does) like “The King’s Speech.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/25/social-network-oscar-nominations/feed/1239569You know what’s cool? 8 Oscar nominations for The Social NetworkSocial Network creators compliment Zuck on Golden Globe stagehttp://venturebeat.com/2011/01/17/social-network-creators-compliment-zuck-on-golden-globe-stage/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/17/social-network-creators-compliment-zuck-on-golden-globe-stage/#commentsMon, 17 Jan 2011 08:01:42 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=237999The Social Network walked away with a few choice awards, including Best Picture, at the Golden Globes tonight. The film is loosely based on Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook, and it largely trashes his reputation from the very first scene, where the Zuckerberg character (Jesse Eisenberg) gets trashed by an ex-girlfriend, who says […]
]]>The Social Network walked away with a few choice awards, including Best Picture, at the Golden Globes tonight. The film is loosely based on Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook, and it largely trashes his reputation from the very first scene, where the Zuckerberg character (Jesse Eisenberg) gets trashed by an ex-girlfriend, who says some classic lines to him.

Erica Albright, played by Rooney Mara, says, “You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.”

But upon winning a Golden Globe for best screenplay, writer Aaron Sorkin took the stage and said, “I wanted to say to Mark Zuckerberg, if you’re watching tonight, Rooney Mara’s character makes a prediction at the beginning of the movie, she was wrong. You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a visionary and a fantastic altruist.”

Producer Scott Rudin accepted the award for Best Picture. He said, “I want to thank everybody at Facebook; Mark Zuckerberg for his willingness to allow us to use his life and work as a metaphor through which to tell a story about communication and the way we relate to each other.” The film also won for Best Director and Best Score.

Interestingly, the rumor mill suggests that Facebook’s handlers resisted the creation of the movie, which is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires, a fictionalized account of Zuckerberg’s life by Ben Mezrich. Then, after realizing the movie couldn’t be stopped, Facebook’s founder embraced it, taking the whole company to go see it in the theaters (a number of times). He often said that the movie makers got a lot of details right, like how he owned almost every T-shirt worn by his character in the film, but noted that he didn’t create the site to get a lot of girls.

But Hollywood likes a good story and ran with the fictionalized account. Now the movie is a big contender for an Oscar. Zuckerberg has been laughing it off. Inside, it has to hurt to be depicted in such a way. But it doesn’t seem to have dented his reputation that much. Indeed, it seems only to have made him more famous.